


How the Golden Age of Piracy Ended

by Light_It_On_Fire



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (Not as sad as it sounds), Angst, Captain Remy, Deceit has scars over his face and is missing an eye, Eels, First Mate Roman, Healer Patton, Hurt/Comfort, Logic | Logan Sanders and Morality | Patton Sanders Adopt Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, M/M, Mermaid Virgil, Mermaid deceit, Mermaid remus, Murder, Mutilation, Navigator Logan, Octopus, Pirate AU, Revenge, Scars, Second Mate Logan, Swearing, Torture, Virgil is a cute baby and wins over the pirates with his adorableness, kind of, mermaid au, they actully kill his parent but its fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21906418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Light_It_On_Fire/pseuds/Light_It_On_Fire
Summary: When Logan and Patton adopt a baby Mer, they have no idea that they have just set in motion the events that, hundreds of years in the future, will bring the Golden Age of Piracy to an end.Not all endings are bad though, and to one small Mer, the family he gains will be worth it when all is said and done.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Sleep | Remy Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, October | Toby Sanders/Procrastination | Nate Sanders
Comments: 33
Kudos: 218





	1. They Didn't Know Any Better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Content Warnings: There is minor character death in this chapter. An unnamed character dies, and several major character are implied to have died at the end of the chapter after a time skip.

The ancient Mer had fought like a demon, Remy would give her that. Even now, he couldn’t suck up the courage to approach the creature, though she lay gasping her last. The fear of the beast suddenly gaining a last bit of strength and ending their quest, (which they were so close to completing) was too great. No need to risk failure, just so they could get their hands on whatever the beast had inside her treasure chest sooner. 

The creature had fought harder than anything Remy had seen anything fight before, to protect that chest. There was no telling what was in it, but Remy would bet good money that it was worth quite a lot. 

The great Mer was certainly a thing to be in awe of. She was nearly as large as their ship, towering above the crew, even as she lay collapsed on it’s side. It was a testament of her age. Mers grew at an incredibly slow rate, but they never stopped growing either. This was one of the larger ones that Remy had ever seen. 

(But then again, the truly ancient ones probably lived down in the deep, never surfacing to see the light of day.)

Honestly though? Remy and their crew were lucky to have made it through this battle.

None of them had gotten away uninjured. Roman, their first mate, had gotten smacked by one of the creature’s fins, sending him flying into a tree. Logan, the ship’s navigator, and second mate, had actually been bitten by the creature at one point. He would be lucky if he kept his leg. 

Patton, the ship’s medic, was usually very passive. He normally never fought in any of their battles, but when he saw that Logan had been grievously injured, he quickly patched him up, then picked up Logan’s pistol and joined the fight. 

An injured Logan was a very good way to motivate Patton.

Even Remy himself didn't get away unscathed. The left side of his face was bandaged up, and he feared that he had lost his sight in his left eye permanently, after he had gotten hit.

However badly any of Remy’s crew got hurt though, the Mer had gotten it much worse. She was bleeding profusely from the several large wounds that they had managed to inflict. Remy felt a strange sense of honor to be here and to see the last of such a great creature. The death of such a creature was a rare thing.

And he _was_ watching the last of the creature. She was gasping now, her wheezing breaths becoming more and more sporadic.

At long last, the creature they had hunted for nearly a year drew her final breath, and went still.

Remy let a rare smile slip over his face. 

* * *

Remy stared at the tiny Mer curled up and peacefully sleeping at the bottom of the treasure chest. It was, objectively, adorable. It’s pudgy little face, tiny hands with webbed fingers, and the soft breaths it let out where all mind-numbing _cute._

If it were a human child, Remy would judge it to be about two years old. But really, there was no telling how old it was, because it was not a human. It was a Mer. A Mer who’s guardian Remy and his crew just slaughtered in hopes of finding some great treasure in it’s fabled chest. (Remy supposed that, to the Mer, this little bundle of joy _was_ some great treasure)

But nope! Because _apparently_ it was using the chest as a cradle for its baby.

Well, shit.

* * *

“Patton, no! We are not keeping it!”

“Remy, pleeeeeease? Look at its cute little tail! And it’s pudgy cheeks!”

“Patton, gurl, we literally killed it’s parent.”

“Please, please, please? I’ll take care of it and make sure it has enough fish to eat!”

“Patton, this is a child, not a pet.”

“...” 

“...”

“FINE, stop giving me those puppy dog eyes. It’s your responsibility, though!”

Remy watched in half amusement and half regret as Patton bounded over to the still-slightly-out-of-it Logan, exclaiming “Logan! I adopted a child!”

As a loud “You did WHAT?” echoed through the med bay, Remy glances down to the small bundle of scales and adorableness still safely asleep in the treasure chest, and gave it a small smirk.

“Welcome aboard, kid.”

* * *

The baby slept for a few hours longer, Patton watching over it the entire time. 

They didn’t know much about it. Patton had examined what he could, and had determined it was a male, but they knew very little else. He had black hair that proved to have a purple iridescent sheen in the light, and a dark purple tail that had black streaks along it. He was obviously well looked after, his chubby cheeks proof that he had been well fed.

That thought worried Patton. They had no idea what the little one would eat, and even if they did, there was no guarantee that they would have access to it. His guardian would have had no trouble diving down to the ocean floor to get food, but that wasn’t possible for the humans aboard the pirate ship. 

He _was_ adorable though. Absolutely adorable. Patton knew that once Logan saw him, he wouldn’t be mad at Patton for adopting a child while Logan was unconscious! Unfortunately, the baby was still asleep, and Logan couldn’t leave his bed in the medbay. So that would have to wait until the baby was awake.

* * *

“Dadaaaaaa~!” The cry echoes throughout the entire ship, alerting the pair sleeping in the second mate’s cabin.

Patton pokes Logan in the side. “Virgil’s awake.” 

Logan groans. “He is _your_ son.”

Patton pouts at Logan, and Logan groans again, hiding his face in his pillow. Even though he can’t see Patton’s pout, he knows he’s not winning this battle.

“Dadadadada~~” Virgil’s voice rings through the ship again, his songlike voice still not quite used to the English he had picked up in the year since he had come to live on the ship. 

Logan sighs, shifting upright, placing his feet onto the cool wooden boards of the ship, fumbling in the pitch black to strike a match and light a candle.

Quietly slipping out of the room and into the hall, he listens to the sloshing sounds coming from Virgil’s tank in the hallway.

He gazes at the tank for a moment, observing the small Mer floating in it, staring back at him.

After a moment, he steps forward, reaching into the water and lifting the young Mer out. 

“Hello, Virgil,” he sighs. “What’s wrong?”

There appeared to be nothing wrong now, the child as happy as can be, gurgling at him. “Dadada! Da!” He reached up, patting Logan’s cheek happily.

Logan made sure to keep his face devoid of emotion. He was not smiling. He was _not_.

“I am not your dad, Virgil.”

Despite the gentle reprimand, Logan continues to rock him until he drifts off to sleep again, gently bouncing him in his arms as he walks up and down the short hallway. 

Eventually, Virgil quiets down, his breathing evening out, and he drifts off to sleep.

Logan turns toward the tank, and startles to see someone leaning against the table that held the flickering candle. The figure was cast in shadows. 

For a ridiculous moment he thinks someone has gotten onto the ship. Which is irrational, seeing as they were in the middle of the ocean. But then the figure speak, and Logan instantly recognises it as Patton. 

“You were taking a while, so I came to check up on the two of you.” 

Logan coughs. “I see. I believe that he simply wanted attention.” He brushes past Patton to gently lower the sleeping baby back into the water, laying him to rest again the pillows lining the bottom of the tank. They had discovered that the small Mer could indeed survive out of water, but he got fussy if he was out of it for more than a few hours. From Logan’s limited knowledge of Mers, he would grow out of that eventually, and be able to spend days out of water. For now though, they kept a tank filled with fresh sea water hauled up to deck every day, and that was his home.

As he stands back up from the tank, Patton speaks again. “You’re really good with Virgil, you know?” 

Logan flushes in the dim light. “I don’t know what you mean. I am simply doing what needs to be done.” 

Patton smiles. “Of course, dear.”

Side by side, the pair walks back to their room.

* * *

Virgil is eight, and he thinks that Uncle Remy is cool. He is, to use a word Uncle Roman had taught him yesterday, really badass! Everyone listened to him when he spoke, and he got to wear a cool hat with a feather in it. 

However cool he thinks his Uncle is, however, he can tell when he’s lying. 

One day, he’s relaxing on the deck with Remy sitting next to him, enjoying the sea spray. Virgil looked at Remy curiously, deciding to ask a question that had been tugging on the back of his mind for a while. 

“Uncle Remy? Where did I come from?”

(He wasn’t blind, after all. His dads had legs and he had a tail, he obviously wasn’t human.) 

Remy had hesitated for a moment, before telling him that they had found him abandoned on a beach, crying for his mother. He hadn’t looked at Virgil while he told the story. 

Virgil has contemplated this, then drew the conclusion that his uncle was lying.

“Uncle Remy-?” Virgil broke off his question, thinking better than to ask.

“Yes, Virgil?”

“Nothing. I just think you’re really badass.” 

“....”

“....”

“Where did you learn that word?”

Virgil grinned cheerfully. “Uncle Roman!”

Remy pauses before standing up from where he was leaning against the mast. “Excuse me, Virgil, I need to go talk to Roman for a moment.” 

A few minutes later, Virgil looked up in curiosity as a cry of “Wait- wait, Remy, my love, what are you-!” came from below deck, before being promptly cut off by a rather girly scream

* * *

Virgil was roughly ten years old now. He was entering the awkward phase of life. As Patton liked to say, he was ‘growing into his fins.’ 

Despite having outgrown his tank for anything more than sleeping, Virgil still hadn’t been allowed to swim in the ocean. 

His Dad worried and fussed, about how he might get lost. (Ignoring how he had a creepy ability to locate their position, and that his Papa was teaching him all there was to know about navigating by the stars.) He worried that the current would sweep him away. (Ignoring the fact that Virgil was developing powerful muscles from having to haul himself across the deck everyday.)

But everyone knew that they couldn’t keep him from the sea forever. 

One balmy day in the middle of summer, Virgil had been feeling rather dramatic, and was lounging on the deck, staring longingly into the water. (His Papa has made a rather cheeky comment about how ‘He didn’t learn such melodramatics from Patton or I,’ while staring pointedly at Uncle Roman.) In the background, he could hear a quiet argument between his Dads. He was pretty sure they thought he couldn’t hear them. They were arguing, Papa insisting that it was time to let him go. _That_ particular turn of phrase seemed to upset Dad. 

Secretly, he hoped that Logan would win, but he tuned out of the conversation. He closed his eyes and just let the sea spray wash over him. 

Almost ten minutes later, Virgil felt someone sit next to him. He elected to ignore them, staring into the water again, letting out a longing sigh. 

“Virgil?” It was Logan sitting next to him. He was obviously slightly uncomfortable. “Your dad and I have have had a talk, and I need to tell you something.”

Virgil hummed, slightly more interested now.

“We have decided that it’s time to let you leave the boat for a little while.”

Virgil went completely still at least five seconds, then he slowly lifted his head, staring at the navigator. 

When he spoke, it came out nearly as a whisper. “Really? You're really letting me go?” He could feel hope welling up in his chest, but tried to squash it down. No need to get to hopeful, of course, he could have misheard him-

“Yes.”

Virgil shot up, giving an exuberant laugh that was quite out of character for him, wiggling excitedly. “Thank you!” He was acting oddly, he knew, but he was finally going to swim in the ocean! He gave another squeal that sounded distinctly inhuman, and sent a shiver down the spines of any nearby crewmate, and scared the birds from the rigging.

“Thank you! Thank you, Dad!” He said, whirling around to go tell Uncle Roman.

Logan spluttered at his retreating back. “I’m not your Dad, Virgil!”

Virgil paused, turning to look at him. “You’re right, sorry, _Papa!”_

Logan, now flushed red, wasn’t able to get out a reply before Virgil disappeared down the hatch. 

* * *

Virgil hesitated at the water's edge. He was perched in one of the ship’s two little rowboats, that was lowered to the sea’s surface. He looked back up at the crew who were leaning over the edge of the ship, watching him. He saw his Dad give him a thumbs up with a shaky smile.

He steeled himself, then slithered over the side. 

Virgil gasped as the water closed over his head. He felt his gills open, and his mouth snapped shut instinctively. He drifted in the cool caress in the water for a while, almost in shock.

When he finally regained his senses, he gave a squeak of shock. He had been sinking all the while, being buffeted by the currents. And unfortunately, the ship stopped right over a deep valley, which as far as Virgil could see, (and he could see very far, farther than a human) had no bottom.

He flicks his tail experimentally. It hasn’t been too long since he had outgrown his tank for anything more than sleeping, and he hasn't forgotten how to swim. 

He swims away from the crevasse’s opening on the ocean floor, knowing the crevasse could be home to things that bigger and fiercer than he was. The area surrounding the crack is shallow, home to an overgrown coral reef. 

It’s… beautiful, Virigl thinks. The sunlight streams through the water, hitting the seafloor, warming the water as well. So many colorful fish swam around him. He shook himself out of his awe, swimming up to the surface. 

When his head breaches the surface, he has to catch his breath, literally. The transition from gills to lungs was significantly harder than that of lungs to gills. He hadn't realized how much darker it was underwater, but when he looked around he was nearly blinded by the sun. 

Once he got his vision back, he looked around for the ship. He found it a good distance away. Squinting, he could see the familiar outline of his fathers. 

His dad seemed distressed, leaning over the edge, with Papa laying a comforting arm around his shoulder. 

Virgil’s shoulders droop, knowing that he was most likely the cause of his Dad’s distress. 

He hears a call from the crows nest, where he saw his Uncle Roman perched, most likely on the lookout for him. When Patton and Logan look up frantically, Roman points out in Virgil's direction. Virgil lifts an arm out of the water, waving in their direction. He could see, even from his distance, that Patton immediately relaxed upon seeing him. 

Virgil feels torn between going to his parents and diving back down to explore more. He eventually settles with giving them a quick thumbs up, and swimming down again, vowing to stay closer to the ship. 

He spends the rest of the day underwater, often in the ship’s shadow. He remains unbothered by other creatures. Most of the prey animals ignore him because he isn’t really big enough to be a threat, and the predators leave him alone because he _is_ big enough to not be an easy snack. 

It crosses his mind, while he’s laying a bed of soft sponges, snacking on a clam he had pried from one of the reefs, that he had perhaps found paradise. 

* * *

Virgil is twelve when he meets Thomas, Talyn, and Joan. 

He’s swimming along underneath the ship, darting through the water, enjoying the nice weather, when he hears a loud chittering. It’s reminiscent of that he hears from dolphins what swim next to the ship, when he’s not in the water to scare them away. 

The chittering is explained, and he stops in his tracks as three dolphin Mers come into his field of view. 

He’s honestly a little unsure what to do. He’s never met another Mer before, (besides, he supposed, his mother, but he doesn’t remember her). They appear to not have noticed him yet, playfully twisting and dancing through the water. 

Once they do notice him, they stop their playful swimming, returning his cautious staring. 

The one at the front of their small group has short brown hair, with a light brown tail. Another had darker hair, closer to Virgil’s shade, with a black tail, that had white stripes running along it. The third had more exotic coloring, their hair bright shades of pink and blue, their tail once again reflecting that coloration. The three of them appear older than him, looking perhaps twenty five in human years.

After nearly a minute of silent staring, the one in front cautiously moved forward, flicking a fin at the other when they hiss. “Be careful, Thomas!” 

Virgil startles at the fact that the black and white one is speaking _underwater_ , and the fact that, though it sounds odd, (like the other was speaking through a piece of pipe) he can perfectly understand them.

He decides to shelve the question of this strange ability for later though, as the one with the brown tail, who Virgil supposes is named Thomas, inches forward again, despite Virgil backing up several feet. 

Thomas speaks, still in the strange keening way. “Where’s your Pod?” The question confuses him.

He tilts his head at them. “What?” 

The keening speech comes naturally to him, allowing the water to flow past his vocal cords instead of air, and out through his gills. 

The three exchange a glance, then Thomas speaks again. “Your parents? Family? You’re too young to be all alone.”

Virgil points towards the ship. That _was_ where his parents were, after all. 

“With the Humans? Oh dear…” Thomas looks stricken, and the three turn away for a moment, quietly murmuring to themselves as Virgil processes the fact that they apparently think that his Mer parents were on the ship with the humans, and not that his parents were humans. 

Which, Virgil acknowledges, is the most reasonable conclusion to draw from their point of view, especially considering that many humans hunt Mers for sport, wearing their scales as trophies. 

They turn around, and the brightly colored one, which Virgil had heard Thomas refer to as Talyn, cautiously approaches him. “If you want, you can swim with us for a while. You should at least come away from the ship. It’s not safe, and… your parents probably aren't coming back from the ship, Sweety.” 

Virgil shook his head vigorously. The three’s offer is tempting. He’s never met another Mer, and the chance to learn more about what he was, was so tempting, But he couldn’t leave his family.

He quietly explains. “The humans _are_ my parents. They found me abandoned on a beach, and raised me.”

Thomas shares a glace with Talyn and Joan. “Are you sure? Sailors don’t often… care for Mers, you know?”

When Virgil insists that his family wasn’t like that, he again spoke. “And… your species aren’t commonly seen near land. They typically are only seen in the middle of the oceans, above deep trenches, where they live. Why would you be abandoned on a beach?” 

Virgil stares at them, huffing slightly and crossing his arms. “I love them, and they love me, and I’m not leaving.”

The three share yet another glance, then Thomas shrugs. “Well, I’ve seen stranger things. If you’re sure, we wouldn’t dream of taking you away from your Pod.” The three wish him well, then continue on their way, leaving Virgil to catch up to the ship which had sailed on by now. 

Virgil never sees them again. The ocean was wide and deep, and the chances of finding them again are infinitesimal, but he thinks of them occasionally. 

* * *

Virgil is sixteen now. He’s grown out of his tank completely, and is nearly as big as his parents. No one on the ship mentions it, but Virgil knows that eventually, and sooner rather than later, he will be too large to stay on the ship all the time. But that won’t be for a few more years yet, so he doesn’t bring it up either. 

He’s started growing spines along his dorsal fins, and at the end of his tail. They’re sharp, piercing things, that sometimes makes crewmates that are less acquainted to him shy away when the spines are bristled in anger. Virgil learns to keep them flat against his back and tail as to not scare them.

His Papa has taught him all he knows about Mers, which is quite a bit now, after sixteen long years of searching for information on them. Every Mer seems to have some sort of special ability, gained from their fish half, and so the spines along his back do not surprise him, not even when it is discovered that they drip with poison when he grows upset.

His teeth and nails are sharp now, and he has started to gain black markings on his skin and scales that he has discovered can glow in the dark, if he wishes. His Papa has hypothesized that his fish half is some type of deep sea creature.

He has taken to hunting for his own food most nights. He prefers to venture out into the dark water under moonlight to silently stalk his prey. The smaller animals have long since started to dart away at his approach, no longer dismissing him as a non-threat, but his glowing patches seem to attract fish straight into his jaws, so in the dark of the night, this is not a problem. 

It is after one of these nightly swims when Virgil is resting on the deck, that his Uncle Remy comes to sit next to them. They rest in silence for a time, Virgil stares at his Uncle for a while, suddenly reminded of the time, all those years ago when his Uncle lied about where he came from, and the words and suspicions of the three dolphin Mers.

They sit for a while more while more, while Virgil plucks up the courage to ask. He could never ask either of his parents about this. He saw the looks in their eyes whenever he was struggling with something related to his Mer heritage, and sometimes even when he calls them Dad, or Papa. He knows it would greatly upset them if they had to tell him what he already suspected. 

He had always known that they hadn’t just found him on a beach like they claimed, but now...

Well, he knows the general attitude of Human sailors have towards Mers. His parents had been sailing the seas for years before they found him, they must have, at some point, held the same beliefs, right? 

So that begs the question, “How did you find me, Uncle Remy?” The question that has been tugging at his mind finally slips out.

His Uncle doesn’t look at him. He rests back against a barrel, his head tipped back, looking at the stars. 

Without looking Virgil in the eyes, his Uncle murmurs the story he told him when he was eight. Virgil just continues to stare. He slowly shakes his head. “That didn't fool me when I was eight, it really doesn't fool me now. Why am I really here?”

His Uncle still didn’t look at him, but he could see tears slipping down his face from under his captain's hat. “We just…. We didn‘t know any better. We didn’t know what she fought to protect was more precious than all the gold on the seas.”

Virgil wants to be angry. He deserves to be angry, but he just can’t muster the energy. He’s seen enough shame and regret in his Fathers’ and Uncles’ eyes to last his lifetime. He feels no need to add to it. They’ve learned their lesson, and attempted to rectify their mistakes. They’ve given him a home and a family. 

He nods, and returns to staring at the stars.

Virgil continues to grow larger.

* * *

Virgil is twenty now. His growth has started to slow enough to be noticeable, so although he is twenty, he is probably only around eighteen in human years.

There are other changes as well. In the past, they had heard many tales about Mers who could sing sailors into trances or in to a deep sleep, but not many put much stock into them.

But they probably should have, as Virgil’s soft, song-like voice now seems to have a purpose other than just sounding pretty.

Virgil’s voice, instead of cracking like a young human man who is going through puberty, becomes more song-like as he grows older. Some days he can’t communicate unless he sings. It’s not really a problem, except for the embarrassment that it causes Virgil.

Or at least, it’s not a problem until his lilting voice starts to lull his crewmates to sleep in the middle of the day.

After a brief period when Virgil stopped talking entirely, fearful of his voice harming someone, the matter was settled as Virgil learned to keep his “gift” under control. 

It comes in handy the next time the find themselves surrounded by a fleet of soldiers. They are a formidable crew, and have fought soldiers before, but not over ten ships full of them. Even Uncle Remy looks lost, staring helplessly as his Dad frantically asked, “What are we going to do? Remy? What are we going to do?!” 

When his Uncle doesn't respond, Patton covers his mouth with a sob, turning to curl in to Logan’s chest. 

Up to this point, his parents and Uncles had kept Virgil out of any fight they engaged in. Any other sailor or soldier that saw a Mer in the fight would automatically gang up on him. Virgil had raised a token protest, but secretly was glad he didn’t have to participate. And then he felt guilty that he felt relieved. Ugh, emotions. 

But now they’re doomed. There’s no way that they would get out of this. Not unless the enemies just dropped dead- 

Wait. 

Virgil couldn’t make them drop dead, but he could put them to sleep!

Virgil quickly hailed himself across the deck, his Dad calling out for him, asking him where he was going.

Virgil ignored him, hauling himself up to curl his tail around the figure head. 

Patton screamed behind him. “It’s not safe! They'll see you and shoot you down!!” His scream came accompanied by a scream from one of the soldier’s ships. 

“Is that a Fuckin’ Mer??!”

Not giving them enough time to react, Virgil opened his mouth, and started signing. 

His singing was tinged with desperation, and the need to protect his family. Unfortunately, Virgil could not choose who his singing affected, and though he could see the soldiers on the ships surrounding them were beginning to drift off, his family and crewmates were doing the same. 

His Papa, thinking quickly, covers his ears, urging others to do the same. They plug their ears, those who were growing sleepy snapping out of it when they cover their ears. They can still hear strains of the music sleeping through the barriers around their ears, so they move slowly.

The soldiers have no such foresight, and start slumping to the deck one by one. 

His crewmates slowly maneuver the ship out of the circle of boats the soldiers had formed, Virgil singing all the while. He only stops his song when they can no longer see the ships in the distance. 

Tales of a pirate crew who own a Mer who spread throughout the land (and the sea), and his family becomes even more feared than before. 

They don't own Virgil, of course, but no one gets close enough to the ship to find _that_ out. 

* * *

Virgil is forty, but looks only twenty five. His parents are old, nearly seventy. That's quite an old age, as pirates tend to die young. (Being a pirate is dangerous job.) But his parents always had one looking out for them, watching their backs. 

They talk one day. His dad says, “You know that we’re old, Virgil. We’re not going to last forever.” It’s not a question. Virgil nods.

He’s floating on the surface of the ocean, his dads sitting in one of the ship’s lifeboats. He’s too large to really stay on the ship anymore, being nearly a quarter of it’s size, so if anyone wants to talk to him, they either have to shout down from the ship, or come down in one of the lifeboats.

It’s lonely sometimes, as swimming below the ship got boring, and he had no one to talk to. Especially now. He was beginning to find that he needed less and less sleep nowadays, being able to keep vigil over the ship all night long. 

Virgil sighes out a breath of air, blowing bubbles that rocked the tiny boat that his dads were seated in. “I know. I can feel it coming.”

They don't’ exchange many more words, simply sitting in silence, as Virgil loved to do. Silence was good. It meant he didn’t have to think of what he wanted to say.

Before they went back to the ship, Patton reaches up, planting a kiss on the tip of Virgil’s nose. “We love you, Sweetheart.” His Papa nods in the background, a small, rare smile on his face. 

“I love you too, Dad.”

“Keep watch over the ship for us, will you?”

* * *

Virgil is old. Very old. Nearly two hundred years old. The ship has had a new captain several times over, and he has outlived all of them. He’s never stopped growing, as would be expected for a Mer, even if his growth has slowed down considerably in the last hundred years. He’s much larger than the ship now. He spends most of his time swimming deep, deep below the surface of the water, but he still faithfully watches over the ship, as his parents had asked of him.

Right now, he’s talking with the newest captain, a sassy young man named Toby, who reminds Virgil a lot of his great-great-grandfathers Roman and Remy. 

He adds little to the conversation, letting Toby ramble on about the new healer that just joined the crew, Nate. After a while, Toby winds up staring at Virgil, who is eye level with Toby, who is standing on the edge of the ship. “You’re not one for talking, are ya?”

Virgil smirks at him lazily, not bothering to respond. Toby huffes indignantly, so much like Roman it makes Virgil ache inside. 

Toby slides down to sit on the edge of the ship, feet dangling over the side. 

“How did they manage to befriend you, by the way? Great-Great-Grandpa Remy and Roman and all them? All my dad told me was that you’ve been hanging out around the ship for ages.” 

Virgil arches an eyebrow. “You don’t know?” He receives only a shake of Toby’s head in response. He hums, considering, then answers, a toothy smile stretching over his face.

“They didn’t know any better.”


	2. A New Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes a family is a Mer who is adopted by two other Mers. (Regardless of the fact that they're that much older than him.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warnings: It is briefly mentioned/implied that humans hunted and heavily injured a character.

Virgil blinks slowly. Water swirls around his large form, causing his fins to shift in the current. Darkness surrounds him, not that the darkness impeades his vision. His eyesight had gotten even better over the years, and now, even on the bottom of the ocean, he hsd no problem seeing his surroundings. 

The biolumnest stripes under his eyes and around his shoulders where lighting up and then fading over and over as Virgil lazes comfortably on the sandy bottom. He likes to lay like this, letting fish around him swim closer and closer the the intriguing light until they got too close, and then-

_Swish-_

**_Crunch_ **

Virgil smiles toothily around his mouthful as the other fish scatter. He lays back, relaxes and lights up his markings to start luring in more fish again. He was confident that no creature would bother him. He was much too large to be an easy target for any creature except for perhaps a blue whale or a giant squid, but he had found that both of those creatures tended to be calm, gentle giants. He had nothing to worry about from them unless he started something, which would be the last thing he would do. 

He still had the scars from having to fight off a juvenile giant squid from his ship.

Speaking of his ship….

He could sense it a ways away, cutting quickly through the water, heading south. Virgl would catch up to them later. He was perfectly happy to stay here for now. 

It’s not like anyone would bother them. They were known throughout the world as the pirate crew with a Mer under their command, and no one would dare attack them. 

* * *

A new recruit stands nervously on the deck of the ship, facing away from Virgil. Virgil smiles at the shaking of his shoulders, despite his attempt to stand straight. 

This particular recruit had been part of the crew for nearly two weeks, but Virgil had yet to introduce himself to him. Virgil has a policy that he doesn't reveal himself to new recruits right away, because he’s learned that it can make them rather hesitant to stay with the crew. 

They all know what they sign up when they board the ship, but they don’t actually meet him until they were far enough away from the nearest port they wouldn’t jump ship and swim to port if they had second thoughts. (It had unfortunately happened before. Virgil had pushed one of the life boats over to them, which they quickly scrambled into, staring at the bethumouth of a Mer in front of them, trying to put a meaningless barrier between them, and rowed away. That was the last they saw him that recruit.) 

Most recruits are nervous at his size, but are able to overcome their anxieties easily. They’re pirates, after all. It takes a lot to rattle them. 

Others, hoverever, are terrified, and despite their best efforts, their primal instincts take over their rational thoughts. It seems like this newest recruit was of the second type. The recruit had been told by Captain Toby that he would meet Virgil today, (after Toby arranged it with Virgil the night before, of course) and he doesn’t seem to be taking it well. 

The recruit was talking with Toby now, being reassured. As he was facing away from Virgil, he hadn't noticed when Virgil surfaced. When Virgil heard the recruit ask when ‘That Mer’ would be here, he quickly drops his smile to hide his fangs, and smooths down his fins to appear less intimidating. (Even though the recruit referring to him as ‘That Mer’ made him want to flare up in anger. He did have a name, after all.)

Toby smils gently and point behind the recruit, who turns around with a squeak. 

When he sees Virgil, he faints to the ground in a dead faint. 

Oh, dear. 

* * *

Virgil swims through through murky waters, perhaps several hundred meters or more below the ship. He has taken to swimming deep below the surface, rather than just underneath the surface next to the ship. 

He’s swimming mostly on autopilot, when he hears a happy shriek ripple through the water that pulls him up short. 

The source of the shriek soon comes into view, in the form of a Mer. Two of them actually. 

The sight and sound of them is startling to him, as he hadn’t seen another Mer since he met Thomas, Talyn, and Joan. The size of them is startling, for one thing. Virgil himself is nearly as big as them, but it’s one thing to know that you‘re large, and another to see someone your size floating right in front of you. Virgil was used to talking to people only a fraction of his size. 

Another shriek, this one much closer, jerks him out of his daze. They’re heading straight toward Virgil. It won’t be long before they notice him… 

While he still has the upper hand of observing them without them knowing he was there, he examined their appearance closer. The eel is possibly even longer than Virgil, while the octopus’ not as long, but made up for it by the sheer volume of his tentacles. They both appear to be about Virgil’s age, but if he has to guess, he would say that they’re older than him.

The eel is yellow in color, but as he swims through the water, Virgil can see the color of his skin shimmer and ripple with other colors, telling Virgil that he could shift his colors to blend into the background within a moment. The left side of his face is heavily scarred, his eye missing, seemingly have been clawed out. He had black markings running along his tail, and his hair was mostly black, but it had a shock of yellow hair flopping over his eyes. 

The Octo mer is colored green with purple rings covering his tentacles. It reminds Virgil of the Giant Blue Ringed Octopus that he had fought when he was younger. 

The Giant Blue Ringed octopus was just like the regular Blue Ringed Octopus, except it was massive. Normally, Virgil is peaceful with other animals, (at least ones that are big enough to not be easy prey.) but it had been attacking the ship, and Virgil couldn’t stand for that. He still has the scars.

The human half of the Mer has a sash tied around his shoulders, and he has an unkempt mustache, and overall looks slightly disheveled. The area around his eyes looked bruised, colored green and purple. Virgil can’t tell if he’s actually bruised or if that’s just his natural coloring. 

The eel is swimming calmly forward, while the octopus is wildly flailing around, half swimming, half clinging to the eel, who didn’t seem to mind his cling on. 

Virgil is… confused by them. They are very odd. 

But he has no time to reflect on their oddness, because that’s the moment that he locks eyes with the eel. 

The yellow Mer stops in his tracks, raising one eyebrow in surprise. The octo Mer looks up from where he was clinging to the yellow Mers side, looking for a reason for the stop. He gasps when he sees Virgil, excited. He detaches himself from the eel, quickly flinging himself in Virgil’s direction. 

Virgil backs up quickly at the erratic and slightly threatening movements. He hisses threateningly, the spines along his back flaring up, his fins spreading wide to make himself look bigger. 

The eel grabs a tentacle of the octopus, pulling him back with an admonishing shout of “Remus!” He then turns to Virgil, holding his hands out placating. “No need to be so hostile, we mean no harm.”

Virgil makes no move to change his threatening stance, and the eel rolls his eyes. “Oh, you deep sea dwellers are so suspicious of everything, _honestly_.” He sounds exasperated.

Being lumped into a group with other Mers seemed odd to Virgil. He had never seen himself as a _Mer_ , not really. He knows he is one, of course, but…. He always thought of himself as just ‘Patton’s and Logan’s kid’, or later in his life, as a crew member of his ship. Regardless, he didn't change his protective pose, starting to slowly swim backwards, trying to escape from this situation. He has no idea how to socialize well at the best of times, _much less_ with other Mers. 

The octopus Mer, (Remus was his name, wasn’t it?), whined. He looks dejected, and the flailing of his tentacles slows in disappointment. “Awww, you’re not leaving already, are you? We haven’t even talked yet! You have to stay!”

Virgil coughs, giving the other Mers a shifty glance out of the corner of his eyes. “No, sorry. I can’t stay. I have to get back to my ship.” 

Remus cocks his head curiously, the unnatural grin back on his face. “A ship? Ohhh! Are you going to capsize it and crush it and eat the humans inside it?!?” 

Virgil balks at the exclamation. The eel huffs, using his tail to smack the other over the head, which startles Virgil into a small huff of laughter. “Ignore him, he has no filter. But what has gotten you so very interested in a ship?”

Virgil shrugs, holding his ground as others swim closer. He knows he couldn’t win against both of them, but there's no need for them to know that, is there?

“My parents told me to keep an eye on it and protect it, so I have.”

The eel hums, a glimmer of interest in his eye. “Protecting a ship? I think I’ve heard stories of you before. You’re the Mer that pirate crew has brainwashed, aren’t you?”

Before Virgil could respond indignantly, Remus gasps dramatically, head shooting up from where he's dissecting a still wriggling fish with his claws. He flung himself at the Eel Mer, wrapping his tentacles around him.

“Dee, you’re not supposed to go close to the human ports!”

The so called ‘Dee’ rolled his eyes, shoving the clingy Remus away, exasperatedly. “I wasn’t, Remus.”

Remus arches an eyebrow, stubbornly ignoring Dee’s attempt the get him off, “Uh-huh, so how did you know ‘bout the brainwashing then?”

Dee sighs, being caught in his flimsy lie, and finally succeeds in prying the other off him. (Which said something about his strength. Virgil remembers the strength of that giant octopus he fought, and that had been a juvenile.)

“Don't worry, Remus. It’s not like they'll catch me.” Here, a flicker of regret goes over his face, and he brings his hand up to rub at the scar over his eye. “Again.”

At this point the two of them seem to remember that he was there, and turn to look at him unison. 

“So he’s brainwashed?” Remus hums consideringly, frowning, going to poke at Virgil’s forehead. 

Virgil snaps at his hand, Remus yanking it away just in time to avoid Virgil sinking his teeth into it. “NO. I am not brainwashed.”

“Oh Reeeeeallllly?” Remus crows, but Dee just looks at Virgil consideringly. “That sounds like what someone who was brainwashed would say!!” 

Dee cuts Remus off, once again smacking him with his tail. “So why would a Mer protect a ship full of Humans then? ” 

Virgil huffs. He was beginning to understand that Remus was simply chaotic, and wasn’t trying to be annoying. “I was orphaned when I was a baby, and my parents took me in. My _human_ parents.”

The two stare at him for a moment, then Dee starts laughing. “Humans? Adopting a Mer? That’s insane!” 

Virgil could feel his blood rushing to his face, flushing purple. He abruptly turns from them, swimming away in embarrassment and anger. He doesn't have time to be ridiculed. The other two follow him at a more sedate pace, Dee calling out to him. “Wait! Wait! I’m sorry, I just didn’t expect that answer, please don’t leave!”

Something in his voice makes Virgil stop, twisting in the water to face the two of them again. “Why should I?”

Remus pouts, his tentacles waving wildly. “We haven’t seen other Mers in ages. We just want company, pleeeeease? You can’t spend that much time with other Mers, either, being not-brainwashed by the crew.” 

Virgil sighs, because Remus is absolutely correct. Actually under exaggerating, seeing as he doesn’t spend _any_ time with other Mers. That didn’t mean he wanted to stay and talk with them. Socializing is awkward and stressful, and Virgil is very rusty at it. Of course, he talked with Toby often, and knew all the crew. But there was a barrier that most people never attempted to breach, which was the minor detail that he was a giant that could crush them in an instant if he wanted to. (He would never, of course, he loves the ship and all her inhabitants, but he understood the hesitance.)

So, yeah, even if he wants to stay and talk, which he doesn’t, he wouldn’t even know what to say. 

He tells them this, and they gape at him. 

“You’ve never talked to any other Mer, ever?” The yellow one asks incredulously. When Virgil shakes his head, Remus gasps in excitement. 

“Oh! We could teach you all about being Mers! Couldn’t we, Deedee? Couldn’t we?”

Before Virgil can protest to say that he doesn't need to be _taught_ about being a Mer, he’s doing just fine by himself, thank you, Dee rolls his eyes, and shrugged. 

And with that, Virgil’s fate is sealed, and he’s adopted by the two Mers. 

(Regardless of the fact that they can’t be more than a couple of decades older than him.) 

* * *

When Virgil surfaces near the ship much later that night, Toby asks where he had gotten off to. Virgil simply shrugged, and says that he got distracted by a particularly juicy looking fish. Toby took his story at face value, which relieved Virgil. He had actully spent most of the night. A lot of the crew liked him well enough, and he has good relationships with several of them, but Virgil doesn't think that the same courtesy would be extended to other Mers. 

Toby would probably forbid him from going back to see them, and for some strange reason, Virgil doesn’t want that to happen. 


	3. The End of an Age

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Content Warnings: death, murder, mutilation, torture, taking revenge, and grieving.

Virgil gives a screech of fright as Remus suddenly appears, latching on to him. His screech gives way to a laugh as he realizes that, yes, it was Remus, and not some monster. The two of them are playing around in a sunny coral reef., stalking and play-attacking each other. Dee is stretched out, dozing on a nearby shelf of rock. Occasionally, when the two of them grow too loud, he lifts his head to make sure they aren't killing each other. 

Virgil ducks away, flinging himself around a sharp outcropping of rock. He slips through a narrow crack quickly, before Remus can catch up and grab onto his tail to pull him back.

It’s been nearly ten years since he met Remus and Dee. He had been spending a lot of his time down here with the two of them. They were like brothers to him now. They hunted together, played together, and swam together. It made Virgil think of the three dolphin Mers he had encountered all those years ago, and the question they had asked him.  _ “ _ _ Where’s your Pod?” _ He hadn’t had an answer at the time. He had a family; he didn't understand the concept of a pod. But now he did.

Dee and Remus didn’t replace his Dad and his Father, but they didn’t have to. 

Don’t get him wrong, he loves spending time with the ship, and it’s crew, of course. But he just loves spending time with the two other Mers a little more. 

It’s nice to hang out with someone his own size for once. Remus and Dee never shy away from him like he’s a monster.

\----------------

Virgil is curled in a cuddle pile with the other two. He and Dee are twisted together, while Remus clings obnoxiously to the both of them, snoring. 

It _ is _ rather late. 

“I should probably go,” Virgil whispers to Dee as to not wake up Remus. Virgil had found that he got rather cranky when he was woken from one of his naps. (He really is just like a chaotic child.) 

Dee frowns. “Go back to those humans? Why? They don’t even treat you like a person, Virgil,” he huffs. Virgil just gives the eel Mer with a soft look.

“I think that’s a lie,” Dee has problems with lying and exaggerating to get what he wanted, Virgil has come to know over the years. This was partially because of how he lost his eye, and how his face got scared.

Dee had gotten captured by sailors when he had been a very young Mer. He had been a curious child, and swam up to the docks. At the time, he didn’t have full control over his camouflage abilities. His camouflage disappeared in the middle of a busy port, and it wasn’t long before he was noticed, caught, and roughly hauled out of the water.

Most of the sailors just wanted to kill him to get rid of the potential future threat, but some of the less savory characters wanted to strip him of his scales to sell on the black market. The scales that had covered his face were pulled out, while the sailors ignored his screams, treating him like an animal, like he couldn't actually feel the pain. They had chained him up and hurt him, right on the dock where humans could gather and gawk at him. 

He had eventually escaped by turning invisible, and bit through the ropes binding him while the sailors were distracted by him disappearing.

When Dee had told him all this, it had been the only time Virgil had seen him cry.

It makes Virgil angry, just thinking about it. 

Dee didn’t like that Virgil spent so much time with his ship. He couldn’t see Humans as anything other than dangerous, and Virgil couldn’t blame him. Going through that would leave  _ anyone _ with scars, literal and metaphorical. Virgil knew that Remus also shared at least some of Dee’s views. 

Not only did Remus know the story of how Dee lost his eye, he had his own experiences with humans. His father had been one of the ancient Mers, a gigantic Octopus Mer that had lived for thousands of years. Remus had been only ten years old, still a guppy, when his guardian had been killed by humans, who had stripped him of his poisonous skin to sell. He had wandered aimlessly for a week, before Dee found him and took him under his wing, so to speak. 

So both of them dislike that he was so close to humans so much of the time. They never say it directly, but he can tell. He feels bad when he leaves them to take care of his ship, but he won’t stop. The ship is the last link he has to his parents, and by god, he isn’t going to lose it.

He sighs when Dee pins him with a begging stare. It won’t hurt to stay here for the night, can it? 

“Alright, fine.” He concedes, curling up next to Dee to go to sleep, humming happily at the warmth the other two gave off. He was built for the cold of the depths, but it was always nice to have a cuddle buddy, adn someone who could watch your back.

What could happen in a few hours, anyways?

\----------------

Virgil stretches out, careful not to disturb the two still-sleeping Mers. It was early in the morning, much earlier than he usually woke. He just couldn’t seem to stay asleep, though. He was getting agitated from being away from his ship for so long. He hadn’t stayed away for this long since before his parents died. 

Dee and Remus probably won't freak out when they woke up and he was gone. They know that he’s grown and can protect himself, even though they sometimes forget. 

He swims away, searching for his ship. Ever since he was young, he has had freakishly good navigational skills. Not only did his Father teach him everything he would need to know about navigating by little more than the stars, but he had always had a vague sense of where his ship was. Even if he was hundreds of miles away, he can still point in the direction he would need to go to reach his ship. The connection gets weaker as he gets further away, and he assumes that if he went far enough away, the connection would fade completely, or snap.

He’s never gone far enough to find out. He doesn’t want to. 

He can tell that he’s fathur from the ship than usual, because the connection is faint. The night breeze must have blown them far while he was sleeping. Even though he’s on the move now, he still feels antsy. He picks up speed though the water until he’s moving along at a clip faster than any ship could match. 

He can tell something is wrong now. He should be getting closer to the ship, be feeling the connection grow stronger. It’s not. Infact, it’s growing weaker, but he _ knows  _ he’s going the right way. 

In fact, the signal is so faint, and he’s so worried and distressed that he almost misses when he swims right past the ship. 

What’s left of the ship.

When he breaches the water, all he hears is silence. Usually there are people crying out to greet him, the sounds of sailors cleaning and working, the sound of the ship plowing through the waves. Now, it’s quiet. Fragments of wood float around the main body to the ship, which is just managing to float. Bodies are scattered around him, bobbing in the waves or laying on pieces of wreckage. 

The first mate, floating face down in the water. The cook, only her torso still in one piece. The captain, laying sprawled on a plank of wood, with blood pooling around him and running into the water. Now that Virgil is listening for it, he can hear ragged gurgled breaths, coming from Toby’s direction.

He scoops Toby into his hand, gently touching his face with one claw. His eyes are open, and he’s staring at Virgil, but not really seeing him. His chest looks mangled. He may be alive now, but he won’t be for much longer. He looks so small in Virgil’s palm, curled up. Virgil makes a choked noise, not quite believing what he’s seeing. 

_ ‘What can happen in a few hours?’ _ He had asked himself.

A lot. 

A lot can happen in a few hours.

Virgil screams.

\----------------

He’s still screaming hours later when Dee and Remus find him. When they woke up and he was gone, they of course panicked, and started searching for him. 

His voice is raw and cracking, and he’s sunk to the ocean floor, curling up surrounded by the debris that sunk to the bottom. It’s not very hard to piece together what happened. 

\----------------

Virgil buries the dead, digging into the soft sand at the sea floor until he hits rock, than digs more until his claws are bloody and torn. He carries each body, carefully laying them down in the grave. He just couldn’t let them float for the scavengers to eat. Remus and Dee silently help him, and then they draw away to give him his privacy. 

When he’s finished, he looks up at him, and says, “I’m going to kill them. Everyone. One. Of. Them.”

They don’t stop him.

\----------------

Tales start spreading of fearsome Mers, driven by blood lust, attacking sailors. Those that travel on merchant ships, and fishing vessels all dismiss it as fiction. It’s never happened to one of them, after all. The only ones who spout these tales are pirates, and they aren't exactly the most reliable kind of people. Those who deal in the darker aspects of sailing know better though.

They say that Pirate ships are being hunted down, leaving few survivors, if any at all. 

The giant purple and black deep sea Mer, a yellow eel Mer, and a green and purple octopus Mer that are the staple of the survivor's tale have become terrors that want the thoughts of pirates while they sail the seas. Recruitment of new sailors to bulk up the ships roster gets harder and harder as the years go on and the killing doesn't stop.

There are a few ships that still pliage, plunder and raid, but they are very few and far between. 

\----------------

The Captain frowns. He turns to his first mate, who’s standing next to him. “I thought I told ye to drop anchor, first mate.”

The first mate turns to look at him curiously. “We did cap’n, right after ya told us to.” 

“Then ye tell me, first mate, why is me ship still movin’?”

The two of them turn to stare at the chain of the anchor, falling over the side of the boat. It  _ should _ have hit bottom by now…

The Captain gets a sudden sense of dread that wells up inside of him. He is suddenly reminded of all the reports of other pirate ships going missing, along with reports of sightings of angry Mers that churn the seas and pull sailors to watery graves in the depths. 

He brushes it off. Surely it’s nothing. After all, they had taken care of that pesky problem of the Mindscape’s crew. They were now the strongest pirate crew there was, (not that there was much competition, these days) and the Mer that had been under their command had likely sunk back down to the depths to live out the rest of it’s miserable life. Now that the captain thinks about it, though, he wishes that he kept at least one of the crew alive, to tell them how they had managed to keep a Mer under their control. It would be an invaluable asset to have a Mer slave to do his bidding.

Ah well, it doesn't matter. 

What does matter, though, is the fact that the anchor  _ still _ has not hit bottom yet, even though the chain had run out of length. The Captain stalks over to the side and peers over the side. Perhaps the anchor has gotten hung up on the side of the ship somehow?

What he sees when he peers over the side was certainly not what he was expecting. 

Looking at the Mer staring back at him with an inhuman smile and sharp unnatural teeth, and it feels like captain is staring death in the face.

The Mer, which he recognizes as the one the one the Mindscapes crew had tamed, is just barely submerged. His face is pointed to the surface, and he grins even wider when he sees the captain staring down at him. He holds up the anchor, which looks small in his large hand. “Hey there. Drop something?” He asks in a sickly sweet tone, popping his head above water level.

Before the captain can even shout for his crew, the Mer’s false smile turns into a rancid snarl, and he raises his arm, before bringing it swinging down with a sense of finality. 

The last thing that the Captain sees is a pair of huge angry purple eyes glaring down at him, like the grim reaper coming to judge his soul. 

\-----------------

Legends tell of pretty mermaids basking in the sun, and waving coyly at ships. This couldn’t be further from the truth, but the pirates who saw the most of the Mers, while selling their bodies on the black market and stealing their treasure, were also the ones who ended up being hunted down by the very Mers that they had wronged. Mers faded into legend, pirates were hunted to near non-existence, and history firmly closed on the golden age of piracy.

All thanks to the soft hearts of a small band of pirates, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, who adopted a small, helpless Mer, giving him a family. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by [a post I saw on Tumblr](https://www.google.com/amp/s/dragonsateyourtoast.tumblr.com/post/169373651900/amp)  
> Comments are appreciated!  
> I'm also on tumblr [@light-it-on-fire](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/light-it-on-fire)  
> My writing blog is [@sanders-sides-snippets-n-stories](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sanders-sides-snippets-n-stories)


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